A long time ago, an old king decided to pass the throne to one of his three sons soon. One day the king called his three sons to him and said, “I am old and have decided to give the throne to one of you three brothers, but all three of you must go away for a year and come back after that year and tell me the most noble thing you have done during that year. Only the one who has really done something noble will inherit my throne.”
A year later, the three children returned to the king and told him what they had gained from their year away.
The oldest son said first, “During my travels, I once met a stranger who trusted me so much that he asked me to give his bag of gold coins to his son who lived in another town, and when I traveled to that town, I gave the gold coins to his son unchanged.”
The king said, “You did the right thing, but honesty is a proper virtue for you to have as a human being, and cannot be called a noble thing.”
The second son continued, “I traveled to a village and happened to run into a band of robbers who were robbing it, and I rushed up to help the villagers drive away the robbers and protect their property.”
The king said, “You did a good job, but saving people is your duty and not yet a noble thing to do.”
The third son said hesitantly, “I had an enemy who tried every possible way to trap me, and on several occasions, I almost died by his hand. One night during my travels, I was riding alone along the edge of a cliff and found my enemy sleeping under a large tree; I only had to give him a gentle push, and he would fall off the cliff and die. But instead of doing so, I woke him up, told him it was dangerous to sleep there, and advised him to continue on his way.
Later, when I dismounted and was about to cross a river, a tiger suddenly came out of the woods next to me and pounced on me. My enemy came from behind when I was desperate, and he ended the tiger’s life with a single stroke. I asked him why he saved my life; he said: ‘It was you who saved me in the first place, and your kindness dissolved my hatred.’ This …… is not considered to have done anything significant.” “No, my son, it is a noble and holy thing to help one’s enemy,” said the king solemnly, “Come, my son, you have done a noble deed, and from this day, I will pass the throne to you.”
As the ancients once said, “It is better to solve a wrong than to make a wrong” therefore, do not hate others for a long time, but know how to look at those who hate you with a kind heart and even help each other out of trouble, so that they can also forget their hatred as soon as possible, such people are noble people.
